09/04/01: Judy Rollings 'Lunchtime Theater' is coming back to noontime at the
Herberger Theater Center according to a 8/19/2001 article by Kyle Lawson. Okay, so I'm a little behind on my reading. As regular visitors to my web pages know, I literally owe my acting life to dear diminutive Judy.  For if I had not been exposed, immersed, embalmed and evangelized into the particular denomination of dissimulation she preaches, the stage would hold no allure for me. And, I would again be grimly chewing the cold, hard, dark, dog turds of the corporate world, rather than drinking the hot red blood the acting life feeds and sustains me with.  (Guess I've seen Shadow of the Vampire one too many times.) The new Lunchtime Theater will perform at noon inside the Herberger rehearsal hall on the easily disassembled stage the HTC is constructing for it. Lunchtime Theater will officially open on Tuesday, February 5th, 2002. Asked what type of productions would be suitable for the revived LTT, Rollings replied that G-rated comedies would be excellent. (Sorry, In Mixed Company.) If you're wanting to further check out the Lunchtime Theater, call Judy Rollings at 602-254-7399 ext. 106.
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08/18/01: You're probably wanting to ask me, "How's the day-job going, Master
Thespian?" Refreshing my reader's memories, I might mention that I am a security guard at a gated community containing homes priced well into the millions of dollars. I decide who lives and dies! Well, maybe not. I decide who ... I decide who ... I decide who gets in. There, I said it. My friggin' job consists of letting people in, or not letting people in. However due to my perfectionist attitudes and my internal emotional responses to other's demeaning behaviors towards me, I find the job keeps me both awake and busy enough to allow only a scant few minutes of each hour to be allocated to reading the hundreds of scripts mailed to me daily ;). You query, "What about post-work hours?" Once home, I'm creamed. It's been over 105 degrees every day, and as required, for eight hours I am balanced on my fungus infected feet, occasionally swept by an oscillating fan-generated swirl of refrigerated air alternating with a bucket full of unusually high humidity-laden desert heat dumped on me. And that's hard work for a fat-ass like me approaching the girth of an Orson Wells or Raymond Burr.
Okay, here's the celebrity story: At the guard shack the other day, I received an angry phone call from a resident client complaining that I had allowed a vendor onto the property who had used their name for entry. Quickly searching my immaculate entry sheets I found no such evidence and informed the client. Later, by peaking out the window they were able to provide me with the vendor name which they had spied on the side of his van. I checked my records and discovered that this particular vendor had been properly cleared to visit another resident on the property, and then had obviously driven over to the complaining person's abode. I thought to myself, "Big friggin' deal ! What are they so upset about?" Later that week, my (day-time security guard/night-time guitar artist) buddy told me that my 'complainer' was a member of a very famous entertainment group. Hey! I didn't know. But now, you, and I, enjoy a small insight into what celebrities must endure for their fame and fortune.
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08/12/01: In order to read the article about Shannen in the August issue of Details
I gingerly fished out my treasured and pre-paid Border's Cafe Card and handed it to the clerk. I was forced into purchasing the magazine because of its plastic wrapping, which held an AOL cd, whose sleeve offered "1000 Free Hours" and then in much smaller print, "For first 45 days." (Imagine that!
In 45 days there are a total of 1,080 hours. Hmmmmm.)  Cheesh! Even though Shannen Doherty was on the cover of the magazine, the interview was nowhere to be found in the 'CONTENTS' pages. I was finally forced into tearing through the issue where way back on page 134 I located the Doherty and Brentley Bardin interview. Only twelve paragraphs of densely packed size 6 font adorned the glossy page. What startling facts did I discover? That she huffs Marlboro Lights, that she loves SPAM® sandwiches (that mention alone probably earned her a pallet of the delicious pork and ham concoction from Paradise Valley's own, Geordi Hormel.)  And that she believes that her passion for her work on Charmed was too overwhelming for the other (read Alyssa Milano) actresses. 'Unknown' Charmed actress Marie Combs was quoted as responding, "I worked with her (Shannen) for three years. I don't think she's difficult at all." Spellings office and Alyssa's representatives would not respond for the article. "Her passion for her work." If that indeed was the challenge at Charmed, I know exactly how she feels, uh, emotionally that is. For, during performances, I have often felt sadness and frustration with my fellow 'non-passionate' actors. Your Master Thespian, like the 'horrible' 'Method' actor's of old, tries his damdest to step out of my life, my attitudes, my concerns, my posture and fully into the skin of my character, with his history, his attitudes, his concerns and postures. And it deeply saddens me when I discover than many of my fellow actors are not willing to take the very real risks of stepping onto the stage and actually becoming someone else. 'Course I'm psychotic, so maybe that helps.
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08/06/01: Seems Ben Affleck has succumbed to the fairy tale that he is an
'alcoholic.' An alcoholic resigned to a lifetime of 'failures' fighting the evil spirits. He's been committed to the same facility that has treated the so very talented and so sad Robert Downey Jr. In 1989 your Master Thespian halted a twenty four year regime of attempting to daily irrigate my liver with more beer than Adolph Coors could brew.  How did I stop? I discovered why I drank and I uncovered a dream for my life. The only means to arrest the abuse of alcohol is to fully face the PAIN you are trying to drown out with the nightly melody of countless pop-tops or tinklings of those oh so shiny ice cubes. If one overcomes the mighty terror of ripping the never-healing festering scab of alcohol abuse away from the unexamined or even unknown PHYSIC PAIN that it clings to, the beer, the wine, and the liquor change from 'musts' to 'maybes' or 'nevers.' 'Maybes' and 'nevers' forever unadorned by either guilt or cravings.
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08/02/01: I'm so naive. I just automatically imagine everyone's nice like me
regardless of who they're addressing. Oh, of course, I realize that major movie stars, fulfilling contractual obligations in order to promote their latest $5 million paycheck, do indeed sit through more than a few Q&A's involving identical  questions posed by an ant trail of interviewers. These M.M.S.'s, in frustration, sometimes respond in demeaning and rude ways. But hey, you and I, while holding our tongues, also endure all kinds of punishment every day for a lot less gravy in order to promote (keep) our own jobs. Jeanette Walls' MSNBC S.N. # 58, gives us a snapshot of how a few M.M.S.'s react and respond during these interviews. Jeanette reveals that during a dialogue with Ashley Judd, the actress ignored Ms. Walls' compliments, responded to a legitimate question with a bullshit answer and began to pick lint off of Jeannette's dress (an oh so obvious sign of condescension!) However, Ms. Walls later discovered she might have fared far worse, for she learned that the smarmy Ashley had had another ink slinger's cassette tape interview confiscated and that she also engaged in a shouting match with a reporter from 'Entertainment Tonight'. Even, 'America's Sweetheart', Julia Roberts, issues a proclamation from on high of exactly which questions she will suffer from the mere mortals sent trembling forth into her presence to publicize her efforts. Mere mortals whose own efforts contribute mightily to the continuation of Julia's Midas-like wealth. These M.M.S.'s are actor's. Couldn't they just act nice for a few hours? Oh, that's right, they are m-o-v-i-e s-t-a-r-s. Some can't maintain a character longer than ten minutes . . .
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